WHAT’S UP DOC? Teachers armed with guns

By Dr. Jeff Hersh/Daily News Correspondent

Tuesday

Feb 27, 2018 at 4:14 PMFeb 27, 2018 at 4:14 PM

Q: Will arming teachers protect our children?

A: The EMTs (Emergency Medical Technicians) who work as first responders are trained in CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), and have equipment and other skills to aid in their response to cardiac arrest. However, since response time is so important in this kind of event we also rely on trained bystanders (the training is not so complicated) to administer CPR and potentially use an AED (automated external defibrillator). When someone has had a cardiac arrest they are going to die without intervention, so the likelihood of actively doing harm with bystander CPR or AED use is negligible.

A teacher is not a public safety professional, and although they may obtain some firearms training, their training will be limited. On the surface, this seems similar to bystanders administering CPR.

However, unlike bystander CPR where actively causing harm is not worrisome, the foreseeable harm from arming teachers is concerning:

When there are guns in school accidents may occur.—For example, a couple of teachers accidentally shot themselves with their concealed handguns in 2014 (thankfully no children were hurt).—A teacher’s gun was accidentally left in a bathroom in 2016, potentially allowing a student to obtain it.—An armed teacher could be mistaken to be a perpetrator (that is why everyone has their hands in the air when they evacuate from an active shooter event).—Many other examples.

Although the hope is that only an active shooter would be shot by an armed teacher, inadvertently shooting an innocent person, or shooting someone who is not a threat, is a concern:—There are about 1,000 police shootings a year, but even these highly trained professionals are challenged to always make the correct call in the seconds they have to decide in an emergency situation. This is illustrated by the ~80 arrests of police officers for murder/manslaughter since 2005, as well as many other cases where the instant decision we require of our law enforcement professionals is questioned.

Even if someone is trained to use a firearm, confronting an active shooter is a different story. Should we expect teachers to actively step into mortal danger and then to actively take someone’s life?—There was a highly trained, armed deputy on duty at the Parkland shooting. As President Trump said, “He trained his whole life… but when it came time to get in there and do something he didn’t have the courage or something happened.” Is it right to expect teachers who have not trained their whole life to perform this role?

Teachers and law enforcement professionals (rather than the NRA, even though they have funded many politicians, including giving over $30 million to President Trump’s campaign) have weighed in on this manner:

Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the National Education Association noted the need is to keep guns out of the hands of those who might harm children, and arming teachers does not address that.
Many teachers unions have already noted their opposition to arming teachers.
Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association for School Resource Officers, pointed out that teachers may be mistaken by law enforcement officers as an active shooter. He also questioned whether it was realistic to have a teacher be prepared to take someone’s life.
Many police chiefs have already noted their opposition to arming teachers.
On the other hand, some teachers and law enforcement officers (including some police chiefs) are not opposed to arming appropriately trained teachers.

None of the approaches being considered will by themselves adequately address this issue. The push to arm teachers does NOT replace the need to address the availability of guns, and to address the unavailability of access to quality mental health care. As we have with many other national health issues, for example auto safety where we have introduced safer roads, seat belts, airbags, and many other technology solutions, as well as increased knowledge/awareness through educational campaigns (for example distracted and drunk driving campaigns, etc.), a multifaceted approach is needed. We MUST require vetting of everyone who buys and owns a gun by improving background checks, address the issue of access to weapons designed for war (including semiautomatic and automatic weapons), better utilize technology (such as by having guns that allow only their licensed owner to use them), improve access to quality mental health care, and fund research to discover other ways to address this national health crisis.